How to carve a chicken

Carving a chicken is easier than you think. Follow these simple steps to perfectly carve a roasted chicken.

1. Let the chicken “rest” after taking it out of the oven. This lets the juices flow throughout the entire chicken.
2. Place a chef’s fork in between the leg (thigh/drumstick) and the bird. Pull back on the leg and apply pressure with the knife to remove.
3. Cut the drumstick and thigh in half if you wish.
4. Remove the oyster, which is a delicate piece of meat under the leg that is sometimes left on the bird.
5. Turn the bird over and hold the other leg with the fork. Slice between the leg and bird with the knife, and use the fork to pull off the leg.
6. Separate the breasts by plunging the fork into the back of the bird while it is breast-side up. Slice into the middle of the breast and cut along the carcass on both sides, making two whole breast pieces.
7. When you reach the joint, cut through and remove the breasts. Slice at an angle into quarters or eighths if desired.

Hi, I’m Marc Bauer from the French Trainer Institute. I would like to show you how to carve a chicken. When the chicken cooks the juices concentrate to the middle of the bird, and as it rests the juices are allowed to flow back throughout.

Once it rested I will place a fork, a chef’s fork, I mean you can use your hand but sometimes the chicken is very hot. I put a chef’s fork to the side in between the thigh and the drumstick, and pull it back applying some pressure with the knife. It removes nice and easy, it doesn’t fly anywhere. So I’m going to just do a little slice, and here we go. I could slice it in half now by going in between the drumstick and the thigh. Actually you can remove the oyster, which is still on the bird. This is a delicate piece of meat that’s mostly left on the bird and that is why it is called in French, le soleles. Silly people leave it.

So, I do that on the other side. Place my fork right in between the drumstick and the thigh, give a little slash to cut the skin clean, and the same way holding a little pressure with my boning knife, I pull out my legs. And at this point I can separate the breast. I plunge my fork right in the back of the bird so its sturdy, and I slice right in the middle of the breast and rub along the carcass to remove the breast meat on both side of the bird.

So you can see I do some slicing and a lot of rubbing along the carcass. You can see my chef’s fork is holding my bird sturdy. Once I’m down to the joint I cut right through it, and my breast separates. There we go. If I have a big bird I can cut this again into a quarter. Once you have a quarter I can cu it into an eighth by cutting it slanted. Um, ready. Then I remove the other breast by applying the fork on the back rubbing the boning knife down the carcass, wiggling my way down so there’s no meat on the carcass. Once I arrive on the joint, I slice through it, and my breast is separated from it. Flip it over, cut it again into an eighth, and there you have it a perfectly roasted chicken ready to serve.